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Posts tagged with the category Collaboration

The power of meaningful conversations to clarify a path forward

We struggle in organizations to clarify objectives and future directions. We are working in complex adaptive systems that are ever changing and uncertain, and our ability to foresee the future, establish goals, and work toward them in a linear way, is difficult, if not impossible, in organizations today. At the same time the challenges before us...

“Reopening Spaces” for African Women Cultural Leadership for Social Transformation – Part 1

Queens. Queen Mothers. Princesses. Chieftaincies. Women Cultural Leaders. Royalty. These are terms and concepts I have encountered in folklore, books, music, history lessons and most prominently in the media with the most visibility perhaps being placed on the British monarchy. As far as I know, my community of birth -- Gusiiland, Kenya -- did not...

The Anatomy of Trust

We may find it hard to define but we certainly know when we lose trust with either a person, group or an organization. When we lose trust we withdraw our energy and level of engagement. We go on an internal strike, not wanting to give to the other person who has hurt or wrongly treated us (according to our values). We may not show it overtly, but...

What happens when a family owns a large business over generations?

Why was the sale of the Washington Post such a media event when struggling businesses are sold every day? Attention was paid because of the special nature of the business—a corporation owned and controlled by a very public family who had put their stamp on it and upheld their values, over four generations. While the paper remained profitable...

Reflections on Collaboration Gleaned from a Dialogue with OS Program Students

Organizations are dynamic interactive human social networks.
Ecosystems of relationships enabling knowledge and practical wisdom to be applied so organizations can reach their mission and serve their clientele are the heart and soul of contemporary organizations.
Increasingly, collaborative workplace systems are the preferred organizational model...

In past blogs, I have explored the notion of an organization’s “collaborative advantage” and outlined core attributes of organizational collaboration.
Effective organizational collaboration is more than strategic tactical measures that produce results. It is not just a way of acting or behaving, but a way of being. Collaboration...

Givers, Takers and Matchers, and Their Impact in Organizations

Bill Gates stated at the World Economic Forum in 2008 in Switzerland, “there are two great forces of human nature—self-interest and caring for others.”
It is easy to understand the impact of giving and taking at a global scale. Our world leaders show us the results of both. Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King amply...

Conscious, Aware Humans and Human Systems

This is not a book review. It is more like a question that I put out to all who read this. I think it is an important question, because it addresses the Saybrook OS PhD enterprise, as well as our roles and relationships with the world in which we live. The question is prompted by an essay/book review that I am writing for Integral Leadership...

Learning to Work and Manage Virtually

The decision made by the CEO of Yahoo to order all employees working virtually back into the office was an unfortunate indication of how little we have learned about working in a virtual world. Sad, given that people have been doing this for over a half century. I was fortunate to work for a company in the 1970s that was progressive on flexible...

The Workplace: Individual Contribution or Community

Marisa Meyer--new CEO of Yahoo and a new mother--took a strong stand on a debate about the nature of a progressive, employee-valuing and innovative workplace. Emulating her former employer Google she decreed that Yahoo employees were now required to be present in person and working together. She feels that a creative and high performing workplace...

MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) in Organizations

I was pinching myself last Sunday when I joined the MBSR community from Northern California in San Jose. The gathering met with MBSR founders Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli and renowned MBSR and Vipassana teacher Bob Stahl for the day, exploring what is going on with MBSR and what is emerging.
Evidence gathered with over 20,000 participants...

How can we best support cross-organizational collaboration?

It seems that many of the conversations I am engaged in these days focus on the need for organizations to collaborate. When I first started working in the area of collaboration, the focus was on creating cultures in organizations that supported people in collaborating across their often siloed functional structures. Maybe that was the...